McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has revealed it was clear to all the teams on the grid that the fuel-flow sensor issue might need managing as early as January this year.

Red Bull chose to use its own fuel-flow sensor on Daniel Ricciardo's car in Melbourne, falling foul of the FIA's regulations and warnings that their own sensor must be used, leading to Ricciardo being disqualified from second. Red Bull has been firm in its belief that the FIA's equipment is unreliable but Boullier does not believe there should have been any confusion surrounding the regulations.

"It's clear that it was raised early enough that there was a little bit of an accuracy issue between the different sensors, but we have been working closely with the FIA since early January to make sure that we understand the needs and understand if we could improve the system," Boullier said. "All the teams were obviously welcome and working all together. In the end the FIA took a position in Bahrain at the second test where it was clear that the fuel flow sensor would be the reference and had to be used. There was a little bit of deviation if you want and we had to be careful with the fuel flow."

While stopping short of criticising Red Bull overtly, Boullier did stress the fact that all the other teams had followed the rules, regardless of their concerns around the sensor.

"In the end we have been fully compliant during the race and the whole weekend actually like most of the teams. To be honest we have enough on our plate and we do our job to be compliant with the regulations. This is just a matter which is between the FIA and Red Bull and we don't want to comment at all."